This new manager stated at the first meeting that he was likely going to be spending the rest of his career - another 6 or 7 years he declared - as manager of the branch.
There is one thing that I can testify as quite certain: at the money I am making, I will not be working for this individual for the rest of my career. The only thing that would make me want to stick around is decent money and without my newly eliminated OT hours?  It is a done deal. I am going to take whatever the best offer I can get that includes me taking my dog with me.  It is a sticking point for me but for me, it's worth it.  I will have a companion with me that has grown to be very much like a Great Dane: following me everywhere I go, wanting to be with me alllllll the time. Leaving him here - my landlords graciously offered to take care of him if it comes to that - would really be very disheartening for me and I just don't feel I could deal with it.  Money isn't everything.

I was at a jobsite today up north and the contractor started right in on the man.  What was up his @$$ the other day? I heard him calling you guys childish and basically stating you are all a bunch of idiots?  What? You heard all of that?  I didn't even know he had been standing behind us.  I was too busy attempting to quelch my internal desire to tell him where he can shove his bs.  Yup, he said, I heard all of it.

I actually have a person as a witness to this "manager's" crap that has no personal involvement at all with this and  I didn't start that conversation, he brought it right up.  I wasn't shocked by his assessment of that man and I felt at least justified in my decision to vacate my position at that company and find greener - and more peaceful - pastures somewhere else.  Now, I can't say that I will love my next job.  I am doing some research on both companies in contention but in the end, you never know until you are working for them and see how you are treated.

Regardless, I received a text message out of the blue from a recuiter for yet another company.  I put my name and info on a site that farms it out to - all kinds - of companies.  They just forward it everywhere. I knew that before I signed up for it.  I've received text messages, phone calls and emails from just about every major trucking company in North America and also from some lessor known ones, including the company that texted me this morning.  My first question: Do you have a pet policy? That's what they call them - learned that in just the first hours of my first searching for a new job.  Yes, tell me about your dog.  Well, he's big, lol.  He's fully house-trained, he's non-destructive and he's definitely not vicious nor would be considered a vicious breed.

How big?  Yeah, he's 130 pounds now, lol.  Funny how a dog that big can roll up into a ball that small yet stretch out entirely and take up an entire bed!  These trucks come with bunk beds. He would have his own bed to sleep on.  The dude says that's fine.  Second question: what's the starting pay?  40 cents per mile.  What's the average mileage per week? Around 3,000. Okay, money's good.  Even if the miles aren't that much, I'm good.  I have a disadvantage that I didn't understand I would have going into this: most of these company do not accept local driving as acceptable.  You have to go out with a trainer for anywhere from 50 hours to 4 weeks to get "certified" to drive with them. They pay during that time equals out to minimum wage.

I'm in a learning curve here.  I had no idea how much the trucking industry had internally changed.  I knew how much the regulations have changed affecting all drivers, I keep up on that but I had no interest until this management change at work to keep up with what trucking companies want and the rules they are playing by.  Today's call was a much better looking company than many of them that I have been looking at.  They have a home every weekend option.  I don't know if that materially affects your pay, though. I want at least a grand a week to start.  We won't get into the conversation until Monday.  That's when the recuiter said he would be back and would give me a call.  I am getting my memory back on OTR driving - what is good, what is not and what questions definitely need to be answered.

I'm still looking local and will still look local even if I have to get on the road.  My main objection at work is the pay reduction.  If that hadn't happened, I would be struggling working for this dude but I would probably maintain myself and just go with the flow.  I've been exposed to dictator type managers before, but they at least had some sense of giving their workers the idea that they are valued by the company and an occasional good job. But, this dude here? Has everyone on edge.  He maintains an atmosphere of rigidity and likes to keep everyone on edge, in fear and in question of their jobs, actually.  He can't just go firing everyone.  But, I'm sure he could fire one or two and get away with it and right now, they are going to bring back the driver that was fired for haivng THC in his system. For me, that gives him the option of getting rid of me and no matter how much I have tried, he obviously doesn't like me.

At this point, I don't try and I don't care.  I don't say hi to him anymore, I have given up on it.  I remain respectful outwardly even though he absolutely doesn't deserve my respect.  I am only doing that because a gap in work history is not good for your job record.  I truly wish I could find something else to do with my life but short of going to school and going broke while doing it, or perhaps some divine intervention and an opportunity out of the blue - I never discount that possibility - I either have to do what I know what makes money or - go broke and live under a tree.  Hey, I have a trailer up on my mom's property in northern Arizona! lol I actually considered that.  Trucking companies don't CARE where you live, take the truck home with you!  Drop the trailer down the road, drive the tractor up there, walaah.  Pay her some rent to make her happy and upkeep the property and there you go. Live up in the beautiful mountains in cooler temps.  Cept' that trailer.  I like it but to live in it?  I could do it I guess just need a few upgrades.

I pretty much go through all the rabbit trails when I am faced with whatever.

Right now my rabbit trrails are truck parking. I have read about it for years.  I figured out that OTR drivers may happen to find palces off the beaten path - but not too far off the main trail - that you won't just happen to find.  They are right off the Interstate usually but you would never they are there unless you knew the area.  I could name 30 places at least in Louisiana off of I-20 and I-49 that OTR drivers wouldn't know about unless - they talked to a local or just happened to get off that exit.  It's a market that needs filled.  I have ideas.  I looked at a few that listed their truck stops for Louisiana and included none of the ones I know about that aren't brand name truck stops.

I'm going to test it out by posting some stops on this blog with an appropriate title and see how many hits it gets.

Anyway, bedtime.